LA Times 2021 Gift Guide
Thank you Los Angeles Times for choosing us as a great gift for gen z this year. <3 The practice kit is an excellent choice for people to practice with before doing a permanent design on themselves ;-)
How to stick and poke tattoo freckles
By Ink the Diaspora, Tann Parker
You are either a real ass bitch or a fake ass bitch in these streets. Who cares if your freckles are fake. Cosmetic tattooing has been around for centuries. It’s a risky business that’s why it hasn’t been popularized in the mainstream. You should treat the process of giving yourself tattoo freckles as a scared embellishments.
With any at home tattooing you should make a clean and sterile space to work. The freckle placement should be mapped out in compliment to your face. Making sure each freckle is in their well intended spot. Deciding on color should be as intentional as possible. Don’t just tattoo black dots on your face, over time with sun exposure, you can’t be sure how they will look.
I would avoid pores on your face. The ink will come right out. And you don’t [...]
Men’s Health magazine on stick & poke tattoos
Check us out in Men's Health Magazine! It was a pleasure to speak with Brett Williams for this piece.
YouTube Comments :-)
Hooray!
Our How to Stick and Poke Tattoo video reached 1/2 Million viewers recently! We strive to educate people on how to do DIY tattooing at home in the safest way possible. History teaches us that "folks are gunna poke." Through sharing info, we can decrease bacterial infection, decrease spread of disease, and increase empowerment in one's own body!
We have many videos on many subjects around home tattooing, hand-poking, stick and poking and are working on a few more now. Follow us on YouTube and Instagram to get the latest info.
To view our videos on our site, click on a video comment below. To view on our youtube channel, click here.
Pandemic-created stick and poke artists
We put out a call to our community on social media to share about their pandemic home tattoo experience. COVID has caused sheltering in place and a rise in at-home activities such stick and poke tattooing. Our sales went WAY up. We were the topic of a VICE article, NEW YORK TIMES article and the Calvary Times! (The Calvary times was great, tbh). Many new artists emerged from the "stay at home" orders implemented around the globe. Here are some pictures and words from a few new hand-poke artists:
Shar, who is @offgridink on Instagram said that our kit made them "fall in love with tattooing" -
which is the sweetest compliment to the kit. Here is more from them:
"I started stick and poke tattooing out of necessity when I moved far out of the city and couldn’t make the trip often for new tattoos. I was also living somewhere very rural [...]
Color swatch tattoos for deep skin tones
Tann (they/them) is the creator of Ink the Diaspora, a platform that is for visibility of brown & dark skin folks who struggle to find representation for tattoos. Based in New York, Tann finds a great interest as their job as tattoo consultant. The interest is so great that they start to learn to tattoo themselves. Learn about Tann starting their journey as a stick and poke artist. Learn about different ink colors on different skin tones. How undertones play a role in tattoo color visibility and how color swatches can help. Tann plans to offer simple color swatches for folks with dark skin to assist them and artists in creating large colorful pieces.
Read more about Tann on our blog.
Pictured supplies are available in our DIY hand poke tattoo kit - check us out.
+ How to Stick and poke tattoo
+ [...]
Ink the Diaspora & Deep Undertones
Ink the Diaspora In the Industry
In the Diaspora (ITD) is described in the Instagram Bio as:
a platform that is for visibility of brown&dark skin folks who struggle to find representation 4 tattoos.
Tann Parker (who uses they/them pronouns) is based in Brooklyn and created ITD when they saw a great need. They are currently a tattoo consultant - they provide information and advocacy for people wanting tattoo related resources, including referrals for artists who are skilled and accustomed to working on dark skin.
Tann reached out to us to be one of our Sponsored Artists. After reading about their relationship with the tattoo industry and the difference they are making in education and empowering people, of course I agreed. Tann is now embarking on a journey to teach themself stick and poke (or 'hand poke') tattooing so that they can give [...]
Why Boycott Amazon and choose these alternatives instead?
Amazon (also, Whole Foods) - First, they bullied the cute book stores out of our towns, and now they threaten to monopolize and automate online commerce and health food industry into a profit machine for a few executives at the expense of all tax payers.
As a former seller on Amazon, I have my own personal experience on how they "prioritize" the buyers at the expense of the sellers - often small businesses like my own. They force lowering prices (sales) and allow fake trademark violators to sell alongside you. Birkenstock took their products off Amazon for this reason and I have followed suit. I have experienced a loss of sales since leaving Amazon, and it has been difficult to leave as a buyer...that Amazon Prime can be soooo good and easy.
In turning to these alternatives (below) for my personal and business shopping, I have made a commitment to the striking [...]
Tattoos are good for you
A story posted by CNN describes a study conducted in the American Samoa by Michaela Howells and Christopher Lynn indicates that the practice of tattooing creates an enhanced immune response. The implications are great! Tattoos could be a major part of the evolution of humans - as tattoos may have played a role in who survived and who died. We pasted the study summary and the link below.
If having a tattoo helped a human survive an injury later, then it is no wonder why every continent has had indigenous people that practice tattooing. It is counter intuitive to think that tattoos were useful for health, because back then it was a somewhat risky thing to do before modern medicine, sterilization and sanitation. Tattoos can be dangerous, if not done safely, or cared for properly. We have many articles on that topic for a reason! For [...]
Video about tattoo needles
New video alert!
Click the video below to watch Naz explain about tattoo needle types and how each type of needle is used! Naz explains the numbers and letters on the packaging and the arrangement of the tips of different kinds of needles. This is very helpful for every beginner stick and poke artist.
Naz answers: What are the different kinds of needles? What is each kind of needle used for? What does the number and letter mean on the package? Which needles are best for stick and poking?
We have 8 new videos all about stick and poking - check them out on our blog or our YouTube channel (below). Follow us to hear about new instructionals, tips, products, deals and stick and poke artists.